Are horns becoming irrelevant in India

This is a discussion on Are horns becoming irrelevant in India within Street Experiences, part of the Buckle Up category; In Delhi, I have this theory -- they hand out driving licenses for 2 different reasons, driving and honking.
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In Delhi, I have this theory -- they hand out driving licenses for 2 different reasons, driving and honking.

People who know how to drive do not honk, and people who honk a lot do not know how to drive.

Not that I mind. I normally either have the headphones on or the stereo on in loud volume.

Regarding Mumbai/Pune, Pune always was less disciplined than Mumbai. In late 90s also we had to drive carefully when we went to Mumbai from Pune. But on recent visits, I have observed a lot of deterioration in Mumbai lane discipline. But in honking terms, neither Mumbai nor Pune comes anywhere close to NCR.

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What I am saying is there are many incidents that are indirectly adding to the noise levels!! So, after digressing a lot --

Here are my queries:
1. What sort of db horn spec limits can a OEM provide a car with?
2. Is there any regulation on the after-market horn db levels? Should the police get involved with it all - maybe with a db meter? Even if they start getting bribed, it could eventually bring down the honk levels, if not the frequency - similar to how the seat belt gained acceptance!
3. How to educate drivers that honking is not such a good/great/saintly thing after all?

4. How does too much honking help with some honing doesn't? (Ok that was just sarcasm at work!)

Will await your ideas / experiences / thoughts / suggestions etc.

Thank you for your time.

Regards,
Cingsman

65 db & 55 db respectively for commercial and residential areas are the limits(not sure if this is for all of India, at least some cities). This 65 db limit is applicable for not only car horn noise also to fire crackers, loud speakers etc. Honking is banned in residential areas from 10pm - 6am. Areas within 100mtr radius of school/educational institutions, hospital/nursing home, court, library are considered as SilenceZone (no-horn zones) and as per law action can be taken against offenders. Administration can take measures to control manufacturing of automobile horns producing noise above the max. limit, which they do for fire crackers.

Well, the actual reality is very different as we all experience every day. I think awareness is needed to reduce noise pollution.

It is amusing to know that the Op refered the Mumbai traffic to Europe. But in reality its not and everyone knows. The free accessory which comes with every car is the horn. Its free and people use it to maximum whether the need is there or not. No amount of policing would stop uncessant honking of the car even if the traffic before is thin or not there. The horn is used just to announce the arrival of you to the fellow travellers. And then we have the most irritating variations of a normal horn which is a pain to the ears. I once tried driving a distance from office to home without honking and used the dippers to indicate to the driver in front and they simply didn't knew what I was trying. Had to give up and start honking, thats when the guy in front realized I wanted to move ahead.

It is a crime "not to honk" in India. I learnt my lesson with my first car (M800) at an intersection where I was 3/4th's of the way through and bang a scooter hit's me on the left front passenger door. the first thing he says "Why didn't you honk?" He wasn't looking straight ahead and was distracted and he hit's me and asks me to honk as if I had committed a crime. I learn't my lesson that very day and better off with my other cars.

Yes, honking is something you have to live with in India. If you decide you are not going to honk, then be prepared to get hits while driving on the Indian roads. I have seen some threads here were the driver could have avoided an accident if he had honked.

This morning, I was driving on Bannerghatta road(Bangalore) and a M800 guy was driving with one hand while talking on his mobile, he was not interested in the cars/bikes around him and he keeps drifting towards right and I had to honk loudly and then he drifts towards left were a biker had to honk, this happens normally in every cities almost every minute.Adding to it, its a rare sight to see an autowala or BMTC using the indicator properly. Most of the two wheelers don't have the rear view mirror. Pedestrians can cross the road any time they wish. even if the signal is green for the vehicles,there will be a bunch of people crossing the road. These are just some examples were people are forced to honk.

Dear All:I just visited Mumbai for the Ganpati festival and coming from Pune, Mumbai felt like Europe! Minimal honking, driver maturity, wide roads, acceptance of the fact that lanes are for driving within and not on them - beautiful. Back to Pune and I all I hear are deafening honks!

Maybe GTO and some of the other influential guys on TBHP can start a 'No Honk day' - start with only the Sundays every week and then spread it out to the whole weekend and maybe take it up from there!! Believe me, it is HARD not to honk when some stupid bugger decides to stop right in the middle of the road to spit out his red junk!

Since you mentioned Mumbai, I beg to differ here. My apartments is on 2nd floor & right next to a busy road, unfortunately on one side of my building is a high profile school. The HONKING that you see the parents do when they come to drop their kids is enough to set examples for the future drivers of this country. I'm not exaggerating but it becomes so difficult to stand in my own bedroom. All this happens when there are three boards mentioning it as NO HONKING zone. So much for our being educated.
The Ganpati festival, every year, adds to our woes. The UNSENSIBLE beating of those racket making drums right under our window, as the processions pass, is extremely unbearable. I wonder who finds them MUSICAL in the first place. May Lord Ganesha BEAT some sensibility into these STUPID people. Why can't they simply chant Bhajans with some dholaks & Manjira's.

It's not GTO but an initiative that should be taken up by our Traffic police. If I remember such initiative indeed was taken by Mumbai traffic police some couple of years back. I hope they had made it a monthly routine since then.

I remember a funny conversation I once had with my uncle ( staying in USA) while driving from NY to Toronto. He was all praises about how no one honks in US and its considered rude. I was a kid back then and I just told him innocently that in our country its written at the back of every bus/truck/auto- Honk Please!

Honking is very much necessary in India. Whether its the scooter guy trying to get ahead, a car ignoring your presence while cutting lanes, all type of Animals including Man trying to cross the road where ever they like, without honking you can't drive. I didn't include buses into it because they anyway don't care whether you honk or not.

But yea some people have taken it to the next level.
The signal is red- The guy behind honks for reasons known only to him.
The signal turns green - the honking increases as if I was supposed to have some telepathic connection with the signal and knew beforehand when will it turn green. Give me a second to slot my car into gears man!
The worst thing that could happen was this recent introduction of a new breed of loud horns courtesy SkoDA and VW. Earlier it was just the pee pee of maruti and honda, those were the good old days.

If we resort to no honking many a lives will be lost !

My solution for curbing this Honking menace
All manufacturers should invent ways to connect your horn use with your fuel consumption. That is you need to burn some of that precious fuel in order to honk. I believe that should prevent us FE maniacs from honking too much!

FYI, when I replaced the horns on my Santro, I couldn't get anything close to the OEM sound levels. The new Minda horns must be at least twice as loud as the OEM ones. The seller tells me there are no brands/horns lower in noise. Go figure!

Btw, try this exercise, just for the kicks of it: Remove the fuse for the horn circuit from your car's fusebox, and then go about your daily drive. If you can still keep your BP in check, you are either too cool or your neighbourhood is.

I wake up in the middle of the night, because I dreamed of an Indicab right next to me, horns blaring and everything! It happens to me, I tell you!

There is absolutely no getting away from 'the horn'. You love it, you loathe it.

I've tried to stop myself from using the horn as much as possible. If I see an idiotic two-wheeler cutting me off, I don't honk anymore. I simply apply the brakes and let him get ahead of me. If I see someone stuck in front of me, I try and analyze the situation before hoking at him.

I realized what a colossal douche I was being when I honked for everything, sometime back.

And I realized this not long ago.

My Santro has been giving me problems off late. The car just dies on me in the middle of the road. So it happened one morning. The car died, and promptly refused to switch on despite my frantic cranking.

Some idiot behind me kept honking and honking. I wonder what was going through his head. Did he think that if he honked, my car would magically switch on?

I realized what a colossal douche I was being when I honked for everything, sometime back.

And I realized this not long ago.

My Santro has been giving me problems off late. The car just dies on me in the middle of the road. So it happened one morning. The car died, and promptly refused to switch on despite my frantic cranking.

Some idiot behind me kept honking and honking. I wonder what was going through his head. Did he think that if he honked, my car would magically switch on?

Kudos! Just the line of thinking I was looking for, just when opinions suggest the we Indians accept honking as a way of life and get on with it. Boy, does it make you life easy or what when you just let go and not honk where you would have earlier!

I think OEM horns are within acceptable levels. Unnecessary honking is a habit, that will not die easy. Recently I visited temple town (Madurai), where every vehicle (two wheeler, four wheeler, LCV etc) had these blaring musical horns. It was the most annoying driving experience. I observed that, the more honking people hear, the more they get used to ignore it. I agree with an earlier post, honking must be linked to some monetary value (be it fuel or pre-paid honking card!).

One other observation... what is the first thing many drivers do on seeing the signal turn green? Change to 1st gear or honk? No prizes for guessing.

A few years back, a French friend of mine was on a visit to India, and we together drove to Rishikesh and back. During our trip, he casually asked me why is India such a honky-ponky country? I had no satisfactory answer for him, but his query made me think for a long time. Ever since, I have tried to use the horn only when absolutely necessary. It has now gone into habit, and believe me, I use the horn about 60-70% less than I earlier used to, and without any problem, so far.

I think its more a matter of conditioning that we honk so much, and can be improved a lot with just a little bit of awareness. In this age of communication and media, it should not be a problem at all, and forums like TBHP can take a lead for a social cause like this.

Quote:

Originally Posted by drmohitg

My solution for curbing this Honking menace
All manufacturers should invent ways to connect your horn use with your fuel consumption. That is you need to burn some of that precious fuel in order to honk. I believe that should prevent us FE maniacs from honking too much!

If the drivers, pedestrians & other moving objects follow proper traffic rules, then the honking will come down to a bare minimum. I in fact agree with couple of posts here that we honk to avoid unnecessary issues.

Some examples:

Stupid drivers on the right most lane driving slowly & not moving to left lane allowing a faster vehicle to overtake.

Morons who simply gets into way without even looking at the road / vehicles coming on to them.

Stupid drivers on the right most lane driving slowly & not moving to left lane allowing a faster vehicle to overtake.

I have given up on this now. No more honking at these people as it anyway doesn't make any difference. Even aunties driving scooty at 15 KMPH give me that look when I try to communicate that she is driving on the wrong lane. Now I just overtake from left and go ahead .

I learnt driving in US, so I was very bad with usage of horns (as per my friends and family). Now because of their constant lessons, I have gotten better . But I still honk at least 50% less compared to my brother or my friends.